R.A. Dickey was masterful and didn't need any luck................           Especially the kind of luck that Calvin Johnson had    Photo by Andrew Burton- Getty                                                     Photo - by Jonathan Daniel- Getty

What’s better than this?  It’s 70 degrees,  and the Mets got a complete game out of a really nice guy, it would seem anyway, a fellow named Dickey.  He’s 35, he’d been in the minors forever, nobody really noticed, and then he figured out how to throw a knuckleball.

Anyway, this guy Dickey has a weird knuckleball, a harder than “normal” one, and it only gets hit when it decides to do nothing,  to just sit there and say, “hit me”.  But that isn’t very often.  Most times, the batter will be out, in spectacularly boring ways.

Anyway, this Dickey guy won his 11^th game last night, and he should be up to at least 15 by now.  He’s unassuming, he has no attitude except for a refreshing positive nature, he’s high on his team, and naturally, the Mets will probably wind up losing him some way, or pissing him off, or making him crazy.

Naturally I’m reminded of Carlos Beltran, who FINALLY is looking something like himself.  But I don’t think he’s trying very hard.  I saw him on the front end of a double play and he just ducked.  Oh well.  Tendinitis, operations the management gave him trouble for, in the last year of his contract, who could expect anything more. 

He’ll get his numbers if he can but, until someone talks to him about an extension or a trade, he’ll hit his long balls, he’ll play a pretty good outfield (meaning fast and smart if uninspired), and be scary to opponents.  That’ll be good enough for me, even at 16 million, given our Jason Bay experience.

But one again, it’s a beautiful day.  Why sully it with Mets talk.  It’s just depressing.  They coulda been a contender, as Marlon might have said.

The Giants, on the other hand, were great on Sunday, much to my delighted surprise.  That Carolina team killed them last year.  Even with all the new guys, that whole infusion of talent, I never expected them to come together as a unit.  They didn’t really show much in the exhibitions.

The Giants stopped the run, they covered receivers pretty well, they rushed the passer.  Hell, they did everything a defense is supposed to do.  Manning to Nicks was there all day.  The running game didn’t look that good but it’s early yet.  But defense will not be absent this year. 

For whatever reason, whether it was Sheridan, or guys who couldn’t cover, or just a general malaise, the Giants stunk it up last year on defense.  And it took the management all year to figure it out.  The Giants almost never make big in-season moves.  They should have.  This isn’t 1956, it’s 2010, the era of just in time inventory systems.  Gimme a break.

But it’s really nice to have football back.  That’s for sure.  Aside from the Giants and Jets, there’s all the action around the league.  I thoroughly enjoyed Sunday if just because my fantasy opponent had some of the most horrendous luck I’ve ever seen.

Kevin Kolb was his quarterback and, ordinarily, he could put up some big numbers.  He got hurt very early in that Packers game.  His most dangerous wide receiver, Calvin Johnson, got totally screwed, along with his Detroit Lions team, on a sure touchdown pass that didn’t fulfill all the “process” requirements for a TD in today’s NFL.  Who’s making the rules, Eric Mangini?

Another fantasy opponent who scared me was none other than MJD, Marcus Jones Drew of the Jacksonville Jaguars.  MJD did quite creditably with 98 yards rushing, but that’s all he had.  Jags quarterback David Garrard decided to have the best game of his career, throwing three TD passes on the day. 

So my fantasy team survived a rather moribund performance from its quarterback, Drew Brees, and a horrendous effort thrown in by Percy Harvin, who couldn’t connect with Bret Favre all day long.  Instead I got lucky, saved by touchdowns scored by players having just average days or worse.  Jahvid Best had two scores but just hadf 20 yards rushing. Knowshon Moreno managed to get one by the Jags and Ahmad Bradshaw and the G-men came on in the second half of their game to start rushing effectively.

The Jets were horrible on offense and no team ever deserved defeat more than that bunch against Ryan’s former team, the Ravens.  It turns out you can’t play great when you have no left guard.  And you can’t just maul receivers running down the field, imagine that, what a concept!   The Jets went down the hole with their braggadocio.

Of course, all things aren’t going my way.  The Yankees won last night in a big game against the Rays, a game the Rays could’ve won despite everything else, if Carl Crawford hadn’t pulled a Carlos Beltran by trying to steal third on a short fly ball with two outs and a shaky Mariano on the mound. I truly dislike the Yanks and still do.  The Rays are the better team.  Crawford should have known better.

And I was terribly disappointed with the performance of the Niners against the lowly-rated Seattle Seahawks.  The Niners were as bad as the Jets.  Maybe Pete Carroll really can coach in the NFL.  And maybe Mike Singletary isn’t as good a coach as I had hoped. 

Dallas looked really awful in their debut and, once again, Wade Phillips helped them lose the game with a ridiculous fancy shmancy (and chancy) play call on the last play of the second quarter, allowing the Skins DeAngelo Hall to recover a fumble and score for the only Skins TD of the game, in what turned out to be the game-winner. Not that I’m a Cowboys fan but Miles Austin is my fantasy #1 wide receiver and at least he had a good game.

So life is good.   The Mets aren’t getting any worse, the Giants have a defense and the NFL kicked off with a bang.  And the Yanks look vulnerable to me.